George Howard Alford

“ They will not grow as much cotton, but it will not be necessary for them to send two-thirds of the money obtained for cotton to other sections of the country to pay for farm products. Boll weevil or no weevil, prosperity will be the rule in Warren county when all of her people live on the products of the farms and grow cotton as a surplus crop. I meet planters every day who are anxious to sell their plantations. They tell me they are in debt and will never be able to raise the mortgage. They say that the boll weevil is here to destroy cotton—their money crop. ”

“ The only people who really suffer in periods of hard times are the men who are in debt; men who owe money and are often compelled to sacrifice their property to meet the imperative demands of their creditors. The farmer who is out of debt when the boll weevil comes and has an abundance of high class food supplies on his farm is not materially affected. Many of the cotton farmers who are in debt when the boll weevil comes lose their homes. ”

“ The evils of the new system are usually as great as those of the all cotton system. Many farmers rush into the truck business. Of course, truck crops should be grown on every farm in the weevil territory, and, in some particular localities, they may constitute the main reliance for cash, but it seems that the truck business is a gamble for the average cotton farmer. Trucking has lured many a farmer to financial ruin.
The crop rotation for the average cotton farmer should include oats, corn, some cotton, and at least one leguminous crop. ”

“ The farmers, planters, merchants and bankers must unite and see to it that the laborers have the actual necessities of life. He should be encouraged to grow his home supplies, a little cotton, a few chickens and his own pork. This method would put farming on a basis which will eliminate and do away with the necessity of sending to the north and west for bacon, lard, mules, corn, hay and other supplies. By working together and keeping our laborers satisfied we will keep them in the community where they are needed to till the soil and help build up our farms. ”

“ But when there is a period of continuous rain after the plant has nearly matured, it is a much more difficult problem to handle. The sun has less access to the plant and it is more difficult to secure all the fallen squares.
The greatest problem with which we have had to deal in boll weevil territory is the hopeless view of the farmer. He wants to plow up his cotton and put in something else, or he refuses to give his cotton the attention which it requires. If he follows our plan thoroughly he will succeed, and in future will make his crop hopefully as he did before the boll weevil appeared. ”

“ The boll weevil will probably keep the price of land down for two or three years, but diversified agriculture and the raising of good hogs, cattle, mules, horses and other stock will force the price up and up until it will sell for four or five times its present market value. Let every planter hold a tight grip on his land. There is no excuse for the blues. The northern farmers are getting rich. They cannot grow cotton. They cannot grow sugar cane, rice and many other crops that can be grown in Warren. Any crop will grow here that the northerners can grow. ”

“ Frequent and shallow cultivation should be continued until the cotton begins to open. Most of the benefits of thorough preparation, early, rapid-fruiting seed, early planting and intensive, shallow cultivation may be lost unless the fields are given the utmost attention until the cotton begins to open. Frequent and shallow cultivation late in the season will not result in the death of many adult weevils, but it will knock many punctured squares to the hot ground and cause the cotton to remain green and continue to grow and put on squares to furnish food for the boll weevil. ”

“ Oats are probably the surest and best paying small grain crop that can be grown over practically the entire cotton belt. The same soil that will produce one bale of cotton per acre will grow 60 bushels of oats. At the average price that has prevailed for oats during the past five years, the 60 bushels will sell for $36 to $40, and the straw, when baled, will often pay the larger part of the expense of growing the grain. ”

“ Plenty of good labor is an absolute necessity in growing cotton under boll weevil conditions. The tendency of newly infested districts is to neglect the laborer at the time when he needs support and encouragement. Thousands of families have moved out of a single county in one season to other cotton sections, while if they had been given a little encouragement to grow corn, grain, cowpeas, hogs, vegetables in his own garden, etc., he would have remained in the community where he is much needed. ”

“ A turning plow is out of place in a cotton field unless the soil is devoid of vegetable matter and runs together after heavy rains or unless it rains for two or three weeks and it becomes necessary to plow under the grass. If the soil packs after heavy rains, it may be advisable to use the turning plow as a necessary evil, especially, when the cotton is young. If it should be necessary to use it to loosen the soil or to clean out the crop, by all means avoid deep cultivation late in the season. ”

“ Burning the stalks is a practical method of destroying the weevils. On many farms and plantations there are not cattle enough to strip the cotton stalks thoroughly and completely of every particle of foliage, squares and bolls in a short time by pasturing. It is also often impossible to completely bury the cotton stalks. In such cases, it is absolutely necessary to cut, dry and burn them as soon as the cotton can be picked. By burning the stalks, the food supply of the adult weevil is destroyed, and weevils in immature stages in the squares and bolls are destroyed. ”

“ Plant the Seed Early: Seed should be planted just as early as the season will permit. This is important in the work of hastening the cotton crop to early maturity. The weevils do not multiply until the squares begin to form. They seldom become sufficiently numerous to destroy the squares as fast as they form, before the last of July. While it is important to plant as early as the season will permit, do not forget that cotton is a tropical plant and is badly effected by cold weather.
Cultivate the Young Cotton: Cultivation should begin before the cotton comes up. ”

“ Of course the heavy rains have been favorable to the weevil, and nothing else could have been expected in weevil territory than the weevil should appear and be rather plentiful on the young cotton. But our experience in this boll weevil fight is that it is far better to have a wet period at this time than later, when the plant is much larger and the squares more numerous. The farmer is inclined to look at the dark side of things. ”

“ You are aware that this year and last year gave us too much rain in our section to successfully combat the weevil, but we have doubled the yield under similar conditions for each year and this increase is certainly due to the good work done by the Government in our behalf. Many more farmers will next year follow more closely your instructions and if we can get a normal season as to rainfall, the cotton crop will, in my opinion, show much more decidedly the value of the Government’s work. ”

“ A mixture of two parts of 16 per cent acid phosphate and one part of 6 per cent cotton seed meal is a good mixture for cotton on soil of average fertility.
[Pg 10] It will usually also pay to mix about ten pounds of nitrate of soda with every bushel of seed just before it is put into the planter. The nitrate of soda has a tendency to cause the young cotton to grow vigorously and resist the bad effects of cool nights. It also usually pays to make a side application of nitrate of soda just after the cotton has been thinned the first time. ”

“ At the present prices for peanuts and peanut hay, it is a very profitable crop to grow after oats when properly handled.
When corn is planted on fertile soil thoroughly prepared, properly fertilized and cultivated, the yield is usually about fifty bushels per acre. The average price per bushel is about 80 cents. Peas planted in corn at the last working will usually average about eight bushels of peas and a ton or more of valuable hay. The peavine hay can be harvested by live stock. ”

“ It is not possible for the farmer in the boll weevil territory to entirely supplant cotton as a money crop, but this crop should be supplemented with the growing of home supplies, as well as other crops which will produce cash returns. ”

“ Reports of tests at the Government Experiment Stations name the earliest and most prolific varieties of cotton. It is not good business to buy varieties of seed that have not been shown to be the earliest and most prolific by actual tests in the fields through a sufficient number of years to eliminate weather conditions. Seed should not be purchased because of high-sounding names or exaggerated claims. ”

“ As certain alternative medicines create great debility and languor of the body before the curative power can become operative, so has all business in any way connected with the growing of cotton suffered depression as a preliminary to the greater financial vigor and strength that comes after a few years’ experience with stock raising and diversification as the rule, and with cotton occupying a secondary place in the farm operation. ”

“ By using a brush on the cultivators to agitate the plants when cultivating the crop, many punctured squares will be knocked off onto the hot ground sooner than they would naturally fall off. At the same time, some of the adult weevils will also be shaken off onto the hot ground. When an adult weevil is thrown on a surface of finely pulverized, hot soil, it is killed almost instantly.
Attempts to Destroy Weevils with Poison: In territory newly infested with the boll weevil, attempts continue to be made to destroy the weevils by poisoning. ”

“ The bed should be disked or harrowed just before planting the cotton seed, but it is seldom advisable to re-bed the land just before planting. Cotton comes up quicker, grows off faster and begins bearing sooner on a well settled, firm seed bed. It is not wise to plant the cotton on freshly prepared land. ”

“ The soil may be kept in the proper condition of fertility for cotton by practicing a suitable rotation of crops, including legumes, and by turning under the corn stalks, the oat and pea stubble, and the grass. ”

“ The planters who keep their laborers and force them to grow plenty of corn, rice, potatoes, molasses, hogs and poultry for home use and to cultivate say six or seven acres of cotton, according to government instructions, will grow more prosperous every year. ”

“ At any rate, the results that can be accomplished behoove every farmer to work carefully and painstakingly to destroy all the punctured squares possible before the new broods of weevils are hatched.
During the growing season, many weevils can be destroyed by co-operating with the natural agencies that tend to reduce their number. For instance, the weevils in the punctured squares that fall on the hot ground in July and August and are not shaded, are usually killed at once by the heat or will starve for lack of food, because of the hardening of the square. ”

“ The following is an extract from an address delivered at Greenville, Miss., in the boll weevil territory, by Dr. S. A. Knapp, a man who did more for real genuine progress in the South than any other one man has ever done. “The farmer who uses modern machinery in planting and cultivating his crop will succeed, and the one who does not will make a failure. The old way of making a crop by hand by the use of the hoe and plow must soon be a thing of the past. ”

“ Before squares form on the cotton, the over-wintered weevils that have come out of winter quarters feed on the opening leaves or buds of the young cotton plants. Early in the morning it is an easy matter to find the weevils in the buds, where they can be easily picked off and destroyed. ”

“ An experiment conducted by the Bureau of Entomology in Calhoun County, Texas, showed that where the stalks on 410 acres of land were destroyed early in October, that the yield was increased $14.56 per acre. Another experiment was conducted on opposite sides of the Guadaulope River near Victoria, Texas. The stalks were burned on one farm the latter part of September and on the other they were allowed to stand until planting time. Forty acres, on the farm on which the stalks were destroyed, produced fifteen bales of cotton. Forty acres on the other farm made three and one-half bales. ”

“ This helps to let the young cotton plants through and at the same time kills millions of tiny weeds and much grass just as they are coming up. The cultivation should be repeated when the little cotton is about five days old. ”

“ Besides the booklets named above, from time to time there will be issued other interesting agricultural booklets pertinent to crops in all parts of the United States. Future issues will treat such subjects as cowpeas, soy beans, peanuts, velvet beans, rice, sugar, cane, silos, feeds and feeding, weeds, insects, etc. ”